Starches, proteins and cellulose together form an important and a large part of the available biomass and have received considerable attention because of their low cost, biodegradability, annually renewal and abundant supply throughout the world (Arvanitoyannis, Kalichevsky, Blanshard & Psomiadou, 1994; vanSoest & Essers, 1997). These biomaterials can be used as suitable substitutes for petroleum based products, particularly if their properties can be matched with those of petroleum based polymers. Starch is composed of two polymers of D-glucopyranose; amylose and amylopectin. Amylose is formed by glucose units joined by 1,4 glycosidic linkages and amylopectin is formed by glucose units joined by 1,4- as well as 1,6-glycosidic linkages. While amylose is a low molecular weight polymer consisting of 1000-10,000 glucose units and is linear, amylopectin is a larger branched macromolecule with degree of polymerization (DP) sometimes exceeding one million (Du, Jia, Xu & Zhou, 2007). Starch based materials and composites have been used in highly sophisticated applications including biomaterials for tissue engineering (Lan et al., 2010; Pashkuleva, Azevedo & Reis, 2008; Pashkuleva, Marques, Vaz & Reis, 2005; Reddy & Yang, 2009; Santos et al., 2009).
Native starches have been crosslinked using polycarboxylic acids such as citric acid, polyphosphates such as sodium trimetaphosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate as well as epichlorohydrin, phosphorus oxychloride and 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (Ayoub & Rizvi, 2009; Chen & Wang, 2006; Jyothi, Moorthy & Rajasekharan, 2006; Mao, Wang, Meng, Zhang & Zheng, 2006; Passauer, Liebner & Fischer, 2009; Reddy & Yang, 2010). Carboxymethylated starch with a DS of 0.45 has been further crosslinked using malic, tartaric, citric, malonic, succinic, glutaric and adipic acid to synthesize crosslinked hydrogels (Seidel, Kulicke, He, Hartmann, Lechner & Lazik, 2001). Crosslinking is a thermosetting modification that interconnects the starch molecules by covalent bonding, thus it not only increases the molecular weight but also enhances the mechanical properties. Water stability of starches is improved by crosslinking while at the same time the swelling is reduced (Reddy & Yang, 2010). Further, crosslinked films also show higher thermal stability and resistance to degradation than non-crosslinked films (Reddy & Yang, 2010).
Corn, a cereal starch containing 27% amylose, and potato, a tuber starch containing 24% amylose, show many differences in functional properties under similar processing conditions owing to their different origins (Mishra & Rai, 2006). The degree of amylose content influences the reactivity of corn and potato starches. Among other constituents lipid contents of the two starches are different; 0.32% in PS and 1.22% in CS (Mishra & Rai, 2006). Lipids form complex with the amylose in CS which leads to more rigid structure and high turbidity. PS also has higher content of phosphate ester groups bound to the native starch, which has been claimed to cause lower pasting temperature, higher viscosity and improved clarity (Mishra & Rai, 2006). PS granules are also fragile in nature and have a different crystal structure (B-type) as compared to CS (A-type crystal structure)(Mishra & Rai, 2006).
The majority of the conventional plastics and composites used today are derived from petroleum, a non-sustainable resource. Many a times the manufacturing processes involved could also be harmful to the nature.2 Most of the plastics and composites cannot be easily collected, recycled and/or reused. As a result, more than 60 billion pounds of the plastics that are discarded every year in the United States of America, at the end of their life, end up in the landfills.2 Plant based natural polymers offer a sustainable, yearly renewable and environment friendly solution to the current problem of plastic waste.3 Natural polymers such as native starch have been chemically and physically modified to form thermoplastic or crosslinked resins with enhanced film forming properties.4 Starch is a polysaccharide composed of two polymers of glucopyranose-linear amylose molecule with (1-4) glycosidic linkages and branched amylopectin molecule with (1-6) glycosidic linkages. While amylose is a low molecular weight polymer consisting of 1000-10,000 glucose units and is linear, amylopectin is a larger branched macromolecule with degree of polymerization (DP) sometimes exceeding one million.5 
There is a need for environmental friendly and non-toxic composites for use in a wide variety of applications, as well as processes for the manufacture of resins used to make the composites, where the processes themselves are also environmental friendly (e.g., water-based).
The present invention is directed toward overcoming these and other deficiencies in the art.